The Histrionics of Repudiation

“I saw Talaat, the man who was responsible for the deaths of my parents, my brothers, and my sisters.” Tehlirian grabbed the loaded pistol he kept with his underclothes in a trunk, ran after Talaat, and fatally shot him. At the sound of gunfire, a crowd descended upon Tehlirian, beating him and holding him down. Witnesses reported that Tehlirian tried to break free, declaring, “I am an Armenian. He is a Turk. It is no loss to Germany.” 
Ali Salih was the assumed name of Talaat Pasha, the former interior minister and last grand vizier of the Ottoman Empire. One hundred years ago today, on April 24, 1915, Talaat oversaw the arrest of hundreds of leading Armenian community members, a step generally regarded as the first salvo in the Ottoman campaign to deport Armenians from the Anatolian Peninsula, thus beginning the Armenian genocide.
Jeffrey Veidlinger, Tablet Magazine

"Let's remember that the Germans were wartime allies of the Turks. Let's remember that the Germans had consular heads in each of the major Turkish centres who were reporting back to their Reichskanzler with reports that were properly horrified by what was taking place."
"We now understand that many of these German officers who observed the Genocide were later key members of the monstrous team that aided in the design of Hitler's Final Solution. "
"As Armenians we are often quick to point out that the Genocide was committed by the Ottoman Turks. A century after this virulent denial, why are we so careful about this nomenclature? I believe that we have been careful not to mention Turkey because we want the current state to have a way out. To say that the decision to eliminate our ancestors was confined to this moment of history."
"Today, 100 years after the horrible events of April 24, 1915, let us no longer obfuscate. When the invitation comes from the Turkish Prime Minister, as it did earlier this year, to "contribute to a new beginning and to believe that Turkey shares the suffering of Armenians", let us be clear."
"Turkey cannot share the suffering of Armenians -- nothing it has experienced can compare to this catastrophic loss. It can try to understand it. It can feel sorry about it. It can apologize for it. But that nagging little word -- 'IT' -- is precisely what Turkey has refused to acknowledge."
Atom Egoyan, Toronto filmmaker

Crucified Armenian women in the area of the Der-es-Zor.

The Council of Turkish Canadians has published a half-page advertisement reading "Reconciliation -- Not Hatred; Fairness -- Not Insult". And with that neat set of slogans sets about explaining why it is that the Ottoman Turks did not actually slaughter one and a half million Armenians; it was the Armenians who had committed an act of high treason, and they were being 'relocated' as a military measure, and that forced march, unfortunately, was the death of one and a half million souls.

Not the fault of the Turks, for as the advertisement states: This tragedy cannot be characterized as a one-sided genocide. 

Right in line with the Government of Turkey whose Islamist President knows what constitutes genocide, and it was certainly not genocide when the Ottoman Turks punished the Armenians; the deaths during relocation, as the advertisement from the Council of Turkish Canadians states; resulted from famine, disease spread, bandit attacks, poor war conditions where Armenians and non-Armenians suffered equally in a tragic war. End of story as they have it.

For Turkey's Erdogan, genocide is an accusation he has hurled at Israel. For committing crimes against humanity in Gaza. His virulent anti-Semitism recognizes genocide in his very own terms. And what the Armenians suffered they alone were responsible for; a pity, a tragedy to be sure, but not of Turkey's making. There is a certain unspeakable degree of arrogance in refusing to commit to the recognition of responsibility; that of a predecessor government.

The forced 'relocation'

Turkey has had ample experience in targeted ethnic killing. Armenian genocide was one. Its relations with the Kurds reflect its position on human rights. And because the world 'forgot' eventually, and laid the matter to rest, Adolf Hitler did precisely what Pope Francis warned would happen again; when the world fails to take firm note and allows such a wholesale atrocity  a free pass into history it gives inspiration to those who would repeat such events. Memories are too short; declarations of 'never again', are heartfelt but fleeting.

Germany's horror inflicted on the Jews during the Holocaust has been acknowledged by Germany, owned by Germany, deplored by Germany, suffered by Germany and sits heavily on its shoulders, bowed to the reality of having committed an organized, well-oiled and hugely successful genocide. It was the successor to the brutally gruesome slaughter of a million and a half Armenians. Jews and Armenians have much in common, and a shared history of mass slaughter is only one.

Like the Nazis, many Armenians were also transported via rail. And, also like the Nazis, the Turks forced their victims to purchase tickets for the ride to their own extermination.

"Writing in the racialized language of the time, U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire Henry Morgenthau, who was also a prominent Jewish activist, noted of the Armenians: “There has been considerable intermarrying with Jews and that by this time there is a decided strain of Jewish blood in them. I asked about this because they all look like Jews and have the same characteristics, the same stubborn adherence to their past and religion and a strong race pride.” Morgenthau was the first major international figure to alert the world to the Armenian genocide. In 1919 he would also head a commission to Poland to investigate the pogroms against Jews."
Jeffrey Veidlinger, Tablet Magazine